Last Monday night, candidates for congress in New York had to turn in signatures to get onto the ballot, setting the stage for rival candidates to object and contend that not enough valid signatures were gathered to earn ballot access. While most of these challenges around New York City totaled to only a handful of objections in each race, the campaign for an open congressional seat in Queens attracted no less than 27 objections.
And every candidate in the race, from the main ones to the also-rans and third party candidates, saw their signatures challenged. Some individuals who filed their objections did so against almost every candidate in the race, a likely frivolous move against the main candidates at least, who collected thousands more signatures than they needed to qualify.
However, some of the lesser-known candidates, who turned in far fewer signatures, could see their dream of getting onto the ballot thwarted depending on how diligent they were in their efforts. And there’s always the unlikely chance that one of the top tier candidates slipped up in their efforts to get onto a third party line, as we’ve already seen alleged to have happened in a Staten Island Congressional race.
In that race, the Democratic challenger, Mark Murphy, is arguing that Republican Rep. Michael Grimm didn’t clear the threshold for the Independence Party. Mr. Grimm has since filed an objection to Mr. Murphy’s Working Families Party line.
All of the objections filed so far only vaguely signaled an intention to more substantively contest the signatures to the Board of Elections next week, when specifics will be required.
View the full slate of challenges here, courtesy of the New York Daily News‘ Celeste Katz.
